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Cullen Smythe

Could you fall foul of State compliance activity?

by Cullen Smythe, Indirect Tax Specialist

Facing declining GST revenues and increasing costs, State and Territory Governments have made compliance activity an important focus of State revenue authorities. In New South Wales alone, the revenue from duties compliance activity in the 2012-2013 year was in excess of $45 million, and $114 million from land tax.

As a result of the complexity of state taxes and the significant differences between States, taxpayers are faced with a web of compliance obligations that can be confusing, to say the least. This has been exacerbated by the decision in some States to defer the abolition of duty on the transfer of shares and business assets and, in New South Wales, also on mortgages.

As a result, taxpayers can trigger a liability to duty on a number of transactions they may otherwise have thought would be duty free, including:

novating and refinancing secured loans

transferring assets between members of a group

changes to ownership or control of entities with indirect holdings in Australian land (including leases)

Ensure you are not one of the organisations contributing to the State and Territory compliance statistics for next year:

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